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Please stay with me for a second and read my opinion before ranting solely because of the title.

First a quick history of what I played in the past. I was playing Holy Priest for most of my 'hardcore' raiding career in WoW from Vanilla till Lich King, later causally pugged as Paladin Tank for Cataclysm. I played Warrior Priest and Zelot on the Warhammer Online battlefields and cleared dungeons as Mitra Priest and later Guardian in Age of Conan. Lately I came to play The Secret World and mainly tanked during my dungeon runs, while occasionally going DPS.

Now Guild Wars 2 is my first MMO not using the Tank/Healer/DPS split as basis for it's dungeon play and honestly I am having a hard time getting used to it. Maybe that’s the wrong term, having a hard time liking or appreciating the benefits is more accurate. As others have stated in other threats, a lack of trinity does not mean you can randomly throw together any 5 players without taking their build into consideration and have a chance on success. Big problem here, most players don't seem to be aware of this, with the result that dungeon runs in pick-up groups tend to be very chaotic and unorganized

The trinity, gave players a baseline tactic to approach every situation, the players of each role knew what their job was upon entering the dungeon, send the tank to catch the mobs, make sure no one dies, kill everything, simple but yet you could build tons of fun encounters around that baseline. Now people don’t have an initial understanding what they are supposed to do. Everybody seems to fight for himself and only looks out for other to raise them up after they have been downed. Mob Aggro, while following some rules, seems to be a bit of a mystery and it doesn’t really let you prepare your skill deck before an encounter, since it is making a huge difference if all the adds and the boss are chasing you, or someone else (aggro depending on player health is a very very annoying mechanic).

There are other things to be found in the dungeons that I would consider problematic from a design perspective, trash heavy, long walks after wipes, graveyard zerging, very high health-pools for bosses and trash and barely telegraphed one-shot mechanics are the most obvious. I love the game, I love exploring, doing events and the WvW, but the dungeons so far have been more frustrating than anything else. I am not saying they are to hard, the difficulty is okay for the most part, but the gameplay is hectic and random, that makes it frustrating on failure, since it is very hard to analyse what went wrong and how to do better.

This lead to a series of questions that I answered myself:

Does the lack of trinity make looking for groups easier? - YES, definitely

Did I have more or less fun playing GW 5 man dungeons than 5 man dungeons in games with a trinity model? - LESS FUN, this is an subjective statement.

Am I having less fun because there is no trinity? - TO A LARGE DEGREE YES, the trinity enforced collaboration, while without, it is more everyone for himself, which goes against the idea of an team effort required to overcome a dungeon challenge.

Will it be more fun in a fixed group? - MOST LIKELY, my experience is based on PUG's, I am perfectly aware that a well build team will have an completely different experience.

What’s your take on this, do you miss the trinity in the 5 player dungeons of Guild Wars 2?

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Originally posted by bubalubaIf no trinity is good be sure that Blizzard would adopt this idea. They tried to create something new in gw2 but only what they did is simplification of everything.

I wouldn't see it is simpler, but the final question that needs to be asked is: "Is it more fun?" And this one feels more like a no to me. It is a new approcach, it is breaking away from the norm, but is it an innovation for the better of the gameplay?

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Honestly, yes. I kind of miss it. Only because everyone is ranged. I reckon it is the outcome when everyone can do everything. So what class are you? I am a warrior. I use a bow/gun. Everyone everywhere uses range because being melee sucks rotten stinking donkey butthole. Sure there are those few that love to tell you they are awesome and the other 500000 billion% are wrong but for the most part, no, it is not fun.

As melee (not healer or tank those non-existent pricks) I have to double tap buttons twice (got two in me) to avoid things but if there is more than a few mobs near each other I am screwed. Or I could stand back and hit my cooldowns and randomly stroll around while I train on melee. Without some idea of what, if anything, someone is doing it feels like a giant cluster-you-know-what.

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Originally posted by bubalubaIf no trinity is good be sure that Blizzard would adopt this idea. They tried to create something new in gw2 but only what they did is simplification of everything.

Not really, Blizzard wont totally revamp the base mechanics of Wow no matter what, not worth the chanse.

And it is not simplification, the trinity is as simple as anything can get. 1 guy tank, 1 guy heal, 3 guys DPS is still the simplest mechnic around. Often everyone can just stand still and rotate skills.

Then of course trinity can be more advanced with CC and buffing, but you really dont need them in modern MMOs like you did in EQ.

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No. My reason is simply the number of years I spent adhering to this so-called standard. It works, but I needed a break from it, and GW2 provided that, maybe a year or two late, but it's still a very refreshing change. Sure, I may miss it again someday, but at least now MMO devs have been shown there can be more than one system, which should provide enough variety for everyone in the years to come.

Note: this is not to say I don't like the Trinity. It's just not necessary for a game to be called an MMO or to be enjoyable.

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I think it's something that'll get more fun as players learn how to play. From what I've seen, a good GW2 group consists of characters that collaborate more actively than in your typical trinity game, because their roles intersect. For example, when you've got a good tank, you only have to worry about not stepping on his toes and you're going to be fine. If you're playing with a Guardian, you have to look at what skills he's using, stay in his shielding bubbles, protect him when necessary, etc. It's still not particularly complicated, but it's better than most trinity setups I've seen.

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Does the lack of trinity make looking for groups easier? - YES, definitely

Did I have more or less fun playing GW 5 man dungeons than 5 man dungeons in games with a trinity model? - LESS FUN, this is an subjective statement.

Am I having less fun because there is no trinity? - TO A LARGE DEGREE YES, the trinity enforced collaboration, while without, it is more everyone for himself, which goes against the idea of an team effort required to overcome a dungeon challenge.

Will it be more fun in a fixed group? - MOST LIKELY, my experience is based on PUG's, I am perfectly aware that a well build team will have an completely different experience.

What’s your take on this, do you miss the trinity in the 5 player dungeons of Guild Wars 2?

Game isn't lacking trinity. Most of the classes can be spec to one of the holy trinity role. As example my first class (thief) was DPS oriented with evasive movements. My second class (elementalist) took healer role. Third (guardian) is very very defensive. He can take few hits without a scratch, protect, do little of group healing and he can buff party.

Trick is that people should decide what role they take in party.

Trinity never enforced collaboration. Trinity enforced ONE ROLE for YOUR ENTIRE TIME. You were doomed to heal or be punching bag whole f***** time. In GW2 you can take any role you want and they just switch to something else.

You have problems with dungeon ? That's your problem. After years spend doing same thing over and over again in WOW with one of your characters you forgot how to think for yourself. How we do it ? First of all we have a guild. Second, we talk with each other and know each other. Third - we gather some people, decide who is doing what and we go with this sh**.

And it's working fine.

Seriously, WoW and other MMO held your hand all your life and now when some game give you freedom of choice, you have no idea what to do with it and you want to go back of being slave. Are you like that in real life ? Want to be ruled ? I think not. So don't do it here. Adapt and have fun of go back to WoW.

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I guess it's a double edged blade. The trinity itself has some really annoying properties to it (endless waiting for the healer, DPS classes not being able to get into dungeons,...), while the absence of trinity doesn't seem to be the way to go, since it removes some of the tactics, that are ok, and it removes letting people roleplay classes that they have been used to roleplaying, and enjoyed them. Some people just like being healers, tanks, ranged DPS,...

I think DC Universe Online resolved this issue the best. Any class you chose could be either DPS or Healer/Tank/Controler. You could simply switch the class, changed the gear, and of you go... So everyone could roleplay their class if needed, but if not needed they could still join the dungeon as DPS. And most of the time people were on their primary class - Healer/Tank or Troll. I find this solution really commendable. Too bad SOE screwed that game up with greediest business model...

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Originally posted by vort3x

I guess it's a double edged blade. The trinity itself has some really annoying properties to it (endless waiting for the healer, DPS classes not being able to get into dungeons,...), while the absence of trinity doesn't seem to be the way to go, since it removes some of the tactics, that are ok, and it removes letting people roleplay classes that they have been used to roleplaying, and enjoyed them. Some people just like being healers, tanks, ranged DPS,...

I think DC Universe Online resolved this issue the best. Any class you chose could be either DPS or Healer/Tank/Controler. You could simply switch the class, changed the gear, and of you go... So everyone could roleplay their class if needed, but if not needed they could still join the dungeon as DPS. And most of the time people were on their primary class - Healer/Tank or Troll. I find this solution really commendable. Too bad SOE screwed that game up with greediest business model...

You can do the same in GW2. You can spec as healer and you are ready to go. Same with tanking. But here not every class have enough defensive skills.

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I do not miss the trinity system. This might have to do with the fact that my first MMO did not have a trinity system.

I do agree with many people regarding some of the content. Champion encounters seem bland when there are twenty players going all out and death seems unlikely. I have only played a ranged character though and perhaps these mobs are more challenging as a melee class or weapon choice.

Group content still has plenty of challenges however many of which are at the behest of random players.

I still find ways to die, there are plenty of challenges remaining, and I am still having fun.

The absence of the trinity is not taking away from my pleasure of playing the game.

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Does the lack of trinity make looking for groups easier? - YES, definitely

Did I have more or less fun playing GW 5 man dungeons than 5 man dungeons in games with a trinity model? - LESS FUN, this is an subjective statement.

Am I having less fun because there is no trinity? - TO A LARGE DEGREE YES, the trinity enforced collaboration, while without, it is more everyone for himself, which goes against the idea of an team effort required to overcome a dungeon challenge.

Will it be more fun in a fixed group? - MOST LIKELY, my experience is based on PUG's, I am perfectly aware that a well build team will have an completely different experience.

What’s your take on this, do you miss the trinity in the 5 player dungeons of Guild Wars 2?

Game isn't lacking trinity. Most of the classes can be spec to one of the holy trinity role. As example my first class (thief) was DPS oriented with evasive movements. My second class (elementalist) took healer role. Third (guardian) is very very defensive. He can take few hits without a scratch, protect, do little of group healing and he can buff party.

Trick is that people should decide what role they take in party.

Trinity never enforced collaboration. Trinity enforced ONE ROLE for YOUR ENTIRE TIME. You were doomed to heal or be punching bag whole f***** time. In GW2 you can take any role you want and they just switch to something else.

You have problems with dungeon ? That's your problem. After years spend doing same thing over and over again in WOW with one of your characters you forgot how to think for yourself. How we do it ? First of all we have a guild. Second, we talk with each other and know each other. Third - we gather some people, decide who is doing what and we go with this sh**.

And it's working fine.

Seriously, WoW and other MMO held your hand all your life and now when some game give you freedom of choice, you have no idea what to do with it and you want to go back of being slave. Are you like that in real life ? Want to be ruled ? I think not. So don't do it here. Adapt and have fun of go back to WoW.

Chill, the thing is, the complete freedom of choice ends at forming a successful dungeo group. You still need synergies and certain skills like burn/posin removal and stuff like that. Every profession can fullfill different rules based on build and weapon choise, but you still need to speck and gear for that particiular role and then find a group where your build makes sense.

It's not so different from being a slave to the standard, just that the roles are diffent ones, and by not being the standard ones it is very confusing to specialize and even know if the group you are running is useful or not. Regarding the freedom, The Secret World had a nice compromise, you could be anything everytime, by a couple of clicks, but you still needed the gear matching the role (tank/heal/dps). There I could join a dungeongroup as DPS, but jump in as tank for a boss and off-heal the next. In GW2 I join a dungeon with my Guardian build for Boon and Heal Support and it might not even be needed. Realistically PUGS now, just throw any 5 people together and then while you start playing you figure out what each is doing and what is missing. So you might end up with groups that are more or less gimped by trait builds and weapon choices...

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As long as the game doesn't keep me from enjoying group content simply because "I am not this class", or because "We don't have this class in the group yet", I'm happy. No, I won't miss the Holy Trinity.

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Originally posted by dariuszp

Originally posted by vort3x

I guess it's a double edged blade. The trinity itself has some really annoying properties to it (endless waiting for the healer, DPS classes not being able to get into dungeons,...), while the absence of trinity doesn't seem to be the way to go, since it removes some of the tactics, that are ok, and it removes letting people roleplay classes that they have been used to roleplaying, and enjoyed them. Some people just like being healers, tanks, ranged DPS,...

I think DC Universe Online resolved this issue the best. Any class you chose could be either DPS or Healer/Tank/Controler. You could simply switch the class, changed the gear, and of you go... So everyone could roleplay their class if needed, but if not needed they could still join the dungeon as DPS. And most of the time people were on their primary class - Healer/Tank or Troll. I find this solution really commendable. Too bad SOE screwed that game up with greediest business model...

You can do the same in GW2. You can spec as healer and you are ready to go. Same with tanking. But here not every class have enough defensive skills.

Well yeah, you can, but it seems people don't really get the impression that they need to roll anything but "DPS". Noone is shouting out that they need someone to roll healer to help them get through the dungoen. They just need "somebody". If you know what i mean...

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I don't get how everyone being DPS is so groundbreaking from Tank, Healer, Dps? Zerging everything to death might be fun at first but give it another month or two, assuming they aren't merging servers by then.